J. H. Mensah Is Angry ... Gone AWOL

Senior Minister Joseph Henry Mensah is angry. He has virtually gone AWOL at a time that he was needed most to lead a committee charged with the planning of an international conference dubbed "infrastructure Development" from 17 October to 19 October 2003. The conference was under the auspices of the Ghana Government and UK's Department for International Development (DFID). Its objective was to build on the conclusions of the growth workshop to assist the Ghana Government in the articulation of its vision for infrastructure development for growth in Ghana and also to assess the role of the private sector in achieving this goal. As of last Thursday when the conference was supposed to open, the Senior Minister was nowhere to be found and staff of his offices could neither locate his whereabouts nor reach him on his cellular phones. While the bizarre conduct of the Senior Minister still a puzzle to stakeholders of the conference, Government, in that state of embarrassment quickly organised a miniature conference last Friday to contain and soothe the pain of participants who travelled from the US, Canada, some European countries, Asia and other sister African countries.